Dynamical Cell Systems Team
Team Leader: Dr Chris Bakal
Location: Chester Beatty Laboratories, London
The Dynamical Cell Systems Team is using high-throughput functional genomic approaches in tandem with integrative computational technologies to describe the complex systems that control cell shape and cell migration during development and organism homeostasis.
Cells that make up the tissues and organs of our body adopt a variety of extraordinary shapes in order to perform a variety of complex functions. For example, our skin cells assume a flat cuboidal shape to pack together and form a tight barrier, while neurons extend projections as long as a meter to transmit information. Many cells also have the ability to dynamically change their shape in order to move from one location to the next. For example, after the skin has been wounded, skin cells migrate in order to seal the gap in the tissue, and immune cells migrate to the wound site to prevent or limit infection.
The Team is interested in understanding how cell shape and motility is regulated in response to extracellular signals during embryonic development and in the context of the adult organism. Understanding the relationship between a cell’s environment and its shape is essential in understanding how control of cell shape is altered in pathological conditions such as metastatic cancers. We have developed a number of functional genomic approaches and computational methods to describe the architecture and dynamics of signaling networks that translate information from a cell’s environment into changes in the cytoskeleton.
Dr Chris Bakal is a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow.
In the Section of Cell and Molecular Biology (including the Cancer Research UK Centre for Cell and Molecular Biology)